Most of us spend our waking hours with people who analyze, judge, and manipulate our behavior.
Sometimes this arrangement makes us better coworkers, neighbors, or parents. Other times, it leads to a life of “quiet desperation.”
We become one-dimensional organizational actors—overly alert to cues, easily prompted, and totally immersed in our little roles.
When we go-along-to-get-along, we are generally accepted by our peers and fit into the world-as-it-is. And the roaring 1990s provided an ideal time to just go with the cash flow.
When society adheres to its mainstream scripts, there are no real surprises or rude awakenings. All the huffing and puffing of the pundits and politicians are just canned “infotainment.” Our mass media "dumbs & numbs" us to the stark realities of our national situation. We become an easily manipulated mass audience
rather than empowered citizens.
Post-9/11 America remains deeply shaken by the unexpected collapse of the World Trade Center towers and the failure of several major U.S. corporations. Perhaps it is time to put down our neat little personal scripts and actually talk to each other face to face, without an electronic interface.
If our collective actions can melt the polar ice caps, then surely our collective thoughts can melt the frozen crust covering the human heart.
As Americans, we are confronted with planetary issues like global warming, environmental degradation and species loss, an inflamed Third World, the uncontrollable proliferation of nuclear and biological weapons of mass destruction, and a litany of other dilemmas.
How does a multicultural democracy effectively move from informed debate to reasoned discussion, to authentic dialogue, to effective action while waging war on international terrorism? Are the political and economic elites that got us into this mess capable of getting us out? What can an individual citizen do to help resolve these seemingly intractable conflicts?
For increasingly wired and techno-savvy Americans, it is hard for us to imagine that something as low-tech as simple conversation could be a valuable first step in our national dialogue. It is also difficult for most adults and young people in our society to believe that the arts have anything to contribute to this forum other than slick commercials, music videos, and comic relief.
But creative participation is ultimately at the heart of both democracy and the arts. It is at this junction that we might find more viable and humane improvisations for a rapidly changing
world stage.
